Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

2nd_time_buyer

QrizB said:

JKenH said:

orrery said:

On the face of it, I agree with those sentiments. There is a big 'but' though, or several in this case...

You can't sell EVs unless there are chargers. Chicken and Egg.

Private enterprise can't make money from charging unless there are lots of EVs. C&E again.

Making 'charging' pay will be difficult: you need high utilisation to keep costs down.

High utilisation is impossible with few chargers (EVs won't queue for hours on end)

The system can only work with large installations, with high numbers of chargers, so waiting time is just a few minutes.

We can't get to that state until there are lots of EVs to generate the income.

So, if you don't get some intelligent form of subsidy then you end up with lots of Ecotricity's. People put lots of investment in with no chance of an ongoing return and eventually run out of money and the system collapses. We've had Ecotricity and we've had other networks before that - Source East for one.

This is the problem when you interfere in the free market.

It's a bit like railways in the 19th Century. There was a huge surge in railway building, the venture capitalists of the day couldn't get enough of railway company shares, and you couldn't throw a Dickens novel without hitting a railway under construction.

Some of the railways succeeded, a lot of them failed. The failed ones were either taken over by their competiotors or closed down.

I get the feeling we're in a similar place with EV charging networks now.

Nice analogy. Seems similar to what happened with the explosion in the number of cash machines. Although, hopefully car chargers will have a longer future.   

Ectophile

When petrol cars were first invented, the only place you could buy petrol was at the chemist, and it came in cans.  All the time cars were just toys for the rich, it sort of worked.  As cars became more popular, petrol stations were invented, and everybody used them rather than queueing at the chemist.

As EVs become more popular, particularly for people who don't have their own off road parking, then there is going to be a lot more demand for charging stations.  All it needs is an empty plot of land with a really good electricity supply, and you can build a charging station.  Set the price per kWh at whatever is profitable and lease a corner of the site to a coffee shop and you're in business.

CKhalvashi

Ectophile said:

When petrol cars were first invented, the only place you could buy petrol was at the chemist, and it came in cans.  All the time cars were just toys for the rich, it sort of worked.  As cars became more popular, petrol stations were invented, and everybody used them rather than queueing at the chemist.

As EVs become more popular, particularly for people who don't have their own off road parking, then there is going to be a lot more demand for charging stations.  All it needs is an empty plot of land with a really good electricity supply, and you can build a charging station.  Set the price per kWh at whatever is profitable and lease a corner of the site to a coffee shop and you're in business.

In reality, it needs parking of some description with access to parking. Street lamps are likely a good way to achieve this for those without off-street parking, with car parks being another option.

I can charge at home, I can charge at work. I charge at home because it's cheaper (as I own my employer, that money effectively comes from my own pocket). If a top up is needed, I will transfer £5 from my personal bank account to the company account to pay for that.

We have worked out how we can work with this for fleet vehicles, however as we expand into other areas (and therefore require more vehicles), other solutions will need to be found. We are partially waiting for demand to recover in other areas, but also are waiting for the first e-Vito Tourers and similar to come off German taxi fleets to decide how to proceed, as these are ideal for the job we'll need them.

We are already attempting to gain support (and hopefully funding) from regional authorities for our plan, naturally to be shared with other companies, but before doing anything are planning to go PHEV for this model, especially as it encompasses several areas with unique circumstances (think mountains) where we aren't sure how well BEVs will work.

Martyn1981

Only a small piece, but good to see companies thinking about electrification across their whole fleets.

FedEx Express Tests EVs In India

FedEx Express is now testing electric vehicles in India as part of its global goal to achieve carbon-neutral operations by 2040, FedEx has announced.

The trial is slated to end in a month in Bangalore and will test the vehicle technology within FedExExpress operations. The company will assess the EVs’ operational effectiveness on a standard route that is fully loaded with packages. After the trial ends, the company will extend the trial to Delhi following positive results.

Martyn1981

Silly comment time, but over the last couple of weeks I've chatted with a couple of people who have travelled on the electric buses that Cardiff Bus has started to use. They were both shocked at how much smoother and quieter the vehicles were, and the lack of vibration when stationary (v's big diesel idle) at bus stops and lights.

One person was laughing because during the trip they actually switched drivers (I don't know why) and the new driver kept accelerating too hard, and then apologising to the passengers that it was his first go, and it was a bit nippier than he'd expected.

Just thought this was a great way to spread BEV awareness with folk talking about their experiences.

Martyn1981

Ohhhh it's so frustrating. Looks like Tesla is so close to ramping up deliveries of their Semi truck, but with chips and battery supply constrained it's still slow. I'm guessing they will be putting most of their resources into the ramp up of TMY supply this year which will be insane - how insane, possibly sell more TMY's in 2022 than all Nissan Leafs sold since launch. 

Guess I'm going to have to wait a lot longer to see a pic of a Tesla Semi hauling a petrol tanker. 

Tesla Semi Megachargers Fully Installed At Giga Nevada

All four Tesla Semi Megachargers are fully installed at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada. Sawyer Merritt shared photos of the completed installation on Twitter and noted that the Megachargers will be able to charge at the rate of 1.5MW.

However, Pepsi did receive a number of Tesla Megachargers at its Frito Lay warehouse and The Drive noted that it had begun installing them onsite. In addition, there have several reports that Pepsi is readying for the delivery of 15 Tesla Semis by the end of this month. Perhaps Tesla will share an update on Pepsi’s deliveries during the earnings call on the 26th.

JKenH

Electric car charging postcode lottery: Crawley is one of 21 councils across England and Wales where it is completely free to charge your electric vehicle

https://www.crawleyobserver.co.uk/news/politics/council/electric-car-charging-postcode-lottery-crawley-is-one-of-21-councils-across-england-and-wales-where-it-is-completely-free-to-charge-your-electric-vehicle-3540944

JKenH

Volkswagen Group meets EU CO2 target

Amazing how in just 2 years VW Group has come to dominate the European EV scene. Just shows how quickly OEMs can transform when they decide to. In this case the motivation was EU CO2 targets. 

The share of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrids rose to 17.2 percent from 10.1 percent in 2020, making Volkswagen the "clear market leader in the BEV segment in Europe" with a market share of around 25 percent.

https://www.manilatimes.net/2022/01/26/business/foreign-business/volkswagen-group-meets-eu-co2-target/1830593

JKenH

Electric Vehicles Emit Less Carbon, On Average, than Combustion Engine Vehicles

Fuels Institute Releases Research Comparing Life Cycle Emissions of Different Vehicles

Over a 200,000-mile life cycle, key findings include:

• Based upon the U.S. average electricity sector, BEVs emit 41% fewer tons of greenhouse gases than comparable ICEVs. HEVs emit 29% fewer tons of greenhouse gases than ICEVs and 21% more than BEVs. 
• How electricity is generated matters - in low carbon electricity markets, BEVs emit 71% fewer tons of greenhouse gases than ICEVs; in extremely high carbon electricity markets, BEVs emit 16% more than ICEVs and 59% more than HEVs. 
• 72% of greenhouse gases emitted by BEVs are associated with electricity generation. 
• Over a 10-year period, on average, BEVs and HEVs represent an 8% lower total cost to own compared with an ICEV, driven primarily by lower fuel expenditures.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/electric-vehicles-emit-less-carbon-on-average-than-combustion-engine-vehicles-301467548.html

EricMears

JKenH said:

Electric car charging postcode lottery: Crawley is one of 21 councils across England and Wales where it is completely free to charge your electric vehicle

https://www.crawleyobserver.co.uk/news/politics/council/electric-car-charging-postcode-lottery-crawley-is-one-of-21-councils-across-england-and-wales-where-it-is-completely-free-to-charge-your-electric-vehicle-3540944

If only that were true !

I expect to be down that way at end of March and would love to be able to top battery up courtesy of Crawley council.  The only 'rapid chargers' I can find on ZapMap are all chargeable (not really surprised at that) and the only free 'fast' chargers (a technical term for a charger of same speed you might have at home) seem to be labelled "customers & visitors only" or are inside car parks where you need to pay to get access to them.

I probably won't be diverting into Crawley on that trip !